Shawn Michaels Talks Leaving WWE, If He’d Return, Undertaker

Shawn Michaels recently spoke with the Miami Herald, where he discussed his recent endorsement deal with EyeBlack and wrestling. Here are some highlights:

Leaving WWE: “I walked away from an extremely well paying job, which is probably not the smartest thing to do, but I did it solely to come home and to help my wife raise our children, to be a part of their lives. WWE would have allowed me to work any kind of way that I wanted. I could have very easily have said, ‘Hey, I’d like to slow down over the next couple of years, do a few things here and there,’ and I think everybody would have been fine with that, but for me, I think that would have probably been harder on me. Personally, I think the job would be harder for me to do, personally, on a semi, here and there, in and out type basis.”

“It’s easier, and I think I’m better at it when I’m doing it or I’m not. So for me I felt it was better to walk away completely.”

Returning to the ring: “You have to be careful because if you leave it as an open option, you’re going to be getting calls on a regular basis. Every time somebody gets injured or every time somebody comes up with an idea, the phone is going to be ringing, and you’re going to have to deal with ‘should I or shouldn’t I?’ I didn’t want to run into that. I didn’t want to put myself through that, and I didn’t want to put the company through that.”

“I’m certainly not going to wrestle, but if you need me for something, if you’re in a bind, you can give me a buzz, and I’ll be more than happy to be there and help out any way I can.”

Being a part of WrestleMania 28 with Undertaker and Triple H: “For me, it was about three of us who have been there — for the most part — the longest of anybody and probably the last of the Mohicans, so to speak.It was three guys who had been sharing that locker-room for a long time, doing this in some form or another, whether it was me and Hunter, me and Taker, Taker and Hunter. The three of us have run the gamut of being in and out of the ring with each other and going through ups and downs, personally and professionally, and this is the last time the three of us will be in the ring together. That’s what the End of an Era was to me.”